Baseball: Glendora’s Adam Plutko and Diamond Bar’s Kenny Mathews were brilliant, but three unearned runs on two errors cost the Brahmas in a 3-0 loss; Damien beats Chino Hills 7-3

By Fred J. Robledo Staff Writer
Diamond Bar pitcher Kenny Mathews didn’t deserve what happened to him against visiting Glendora on Friday, but then again, Tartans pitcher Adam Plutko made it possible by going toe-to-toe with the junior left-hander in a highly anticipated matchup between two of the Valley’s best hurlers. The Tartans scored three runs on two errors in the seventh inning to beat the Brahmas 3-0, with the UCLA-bound Plutko throwing a complete game two-hit shutout to keep the Tartans (15-1-1, 6-1) in sole possession of first in the Sierra League after back-to-back wins over the Brahmas to take the season series, 2-1. (To continue click thread)

The Brahmas (10-7, 4-3) started the week in a tie for first with the Tartans, having beating them earlier in the season when Mathews outdueled Plutko for a 1-0 victory.
Mathews, already committed to Cal State Fullerton, took a one-hitter into the seventh inning of a 0-0 game and got the first two outs, but he walked Kyle Layton, then Jacob Cage’s potential inning-ending grounder to second was bobbled, allowing Cage to reach first on the error.
After Mathews hit Brennan Salgado to load the bases, Josh Luevanos grounded a single to left to score Layton, giving the Brahmas a 1-0 lead.
Luevanos got the only two hits off Mathews, who also finished with ten strikeouts.
“I just tried to put the ball in play and it got through,” Luevanos said. “You live for games like this. He’s (Mathews) a great pitcher and we had to scratch a run in the seventh to pull it out.”
The inning still wasn’t over.
Joseph Woodward’s bases-loaded grounder to third turned into another error with a wild throw to first, allowing Cage and Salgado to score to stake the Tartans to 3-0 lead in a game that looked destined to go eight or nine innings just a few minutes earlier.
“It’s tough to bite something like this, especially when you have 0-0 in the seventh with Mathews on the mound,” Diamond Bar coach Eric Shibley said. “You have two outstanding quality pitchers giving their all and unfortunately on our side of it, defensively, that’s been kind of our M.O. all season.
“We give up to many bases, whether it’s errors, walks or whatever, and today it was errors. We’ve been plagued by it all year, there is no getting around it.”
Plutko (5-1) knew it was going to take this type of effort, retiring 12 of the final 13 he faced.
“I know Kenny pretty well, and we knew going in there was no way we were giving up more than a couple runs,” Plutko said. “You don’t do it alone, your defense has to play well behind you and you execute when you have opportunities.
“That was the difference. Kenny threw a great game, but we took advantage of the opportunities they gave us.”
Tartans coach Dan Henley won’t argue with that.
“However it comes we’ll take it, I’m not going to lie,” Henley said. “It was one of those games which you had these two guys who could have gone on forever. It certainly lived up to the billing.”

About Fred Robledo

Got to go with Lefty in this one. Kid is a bulldog and doesn’t make many mistakes. Look for this to be a 1-0 or 2-1 game. D-Bar has the Left handed bats to pull this one out.

Baseball NUT!

Hopefully a CLASSIC like round one!
I spoke with a very good friend of mine Thursday evening who scouts for the Toronto Blue Jays. He was going to see some kid named Ryan Muno a infielder for Mission Viejo vs Capo Vly. He instead says he will head to Diamond Bar for this matchup.
His words were

“I have seen Ryan twice already. Its time I make the trek up the 57. I usually get there during playoffs. He says he heard Mathews is damn good, as some have seen him in a early OC tournment. He also says IF he stays healthy, and has a good head on him, that he probably will NEVER see the field at CSF. Being a lefty with “stuff” is usually a pretty decent draft pick, as they are not as common.

GOOD LUCK TO BOTH GUYS, AND TEAMS. I’m sure DB high will be packed. Expect Denny’s on Pathfinder to be busy around 6:00 pm

http://www.insidesocal.com/sgvfootball Aram

That’s just what I was about to say — Mathews being a lefty means he can write his own ticket. What a great, great matchup. I would say it’s a tad better than Tucker/McKiernan, which was amazing. Should be fun … looking forward to it.

hey Fred

hey Fred according to maxpreps bonita softball ranked 7 in state and Glendora number 20

kh

baseball nut,
way to front your rescoure off.
in the old days if a scout would tell anybody who hes scouting ,might cost him his job.but now they scout from max prep.

kh

baseball nut,
way to front your rescoure off.
in the old days if a scout would tell anybody who hes scouting ,might cost him his job.but now they scout from max prep.

SHBASEBALL

you also got a night game tonight at mt sac. SH vs wc

Oh Goody

Another blog from kh that makes no sense. We are so blessed to have received it in triplicate too!

Don

Mr. Goody,

Like much of what kh posts, his post about baseball nuts conversation with a BJ stringer rings true to lots of folks familiar with the business of baseball, though those whose knowledge of the game begins with the local little league all stars and ends with the McCourts legal woes should probably just skip them.

What Ken was talking about is the way that scouts would carefully try to hide their interest in a prospect back in the day to hopefully reduce the chance of bidding wars erupting for highly talented kids. This was especially so for guys who specialized in finding players from rural areas or outside of the US. It would actually be an inside joke to scouts who would show up at a game being played as they would all feign interest in different players when they all knew the other guys were there to see the same player they were. Ha Ha Ha. Hey, nobody said inside Baseball humor was funny.

Anyhow, to Kens point: These days, with so much on the web about kids in sports, there is no more need for scouts to scout, just evaluate. Between the prep forums and blogs with folks adding stuff under multiple identities, you tube videos, bloated stats, and yes, MaxPreps, even average kids can come across as a star.

God bless the WWW.

Baseball NUT!

Kh,
You make a valid point, but lets NOT forget this isn’t 1975. Back when I played ( 79-82)
I had a Phillie scout on me like white on rice. Every time he saw me after he asked how I was, he asked who else has talked to me? You had scouts fighting for kids, to keep thier jobs which meant upping the ante so to speak. They would drive for hours to see one kid. Now you can see 5-10 in one week of H.S baseball within 20 miles. Kids are that much better these days For me It came down to Phillies, Giants, and Seattle. Not really a war for my services but it was fun.

NOW in honest truth, they can do alot of work via the internet, but they still need to scout/watch you. How many teams have NO stats on the internet? And just becasue a kid hit .489 doesnt mean he is draftable! Their really there to see if a kid is meant for their team. Talent on the field is 70%, BUT is the kid a head case, is he argumentive, is he a leader, does he respect the game, is he willing to listen, does he want to learn or is he a know it all? Is he 17 going on 18, or is he 17 going on 12!ALOT goes into the decision, especially when its no longer $15,000 like me, but 300,000 for a kid in the 3rd-7th rounds. IF you have been throuh the process then you know. My friend is ONE of 3 Blue Jay scouts that cover from Oxnard, to San Diego. He does OC HS ball, down to San Diego. The Yankess have about 8-10 guys in the SAME area alone! ( more $$ to burn) Also in the old days, lol.. they were very easy to spot with their paper, radar, hats, and lounge chairs, and seeds. Now ( if they want to )you barley know what they look like IF they dont want to be seen. A cell phone w/e-mail is all that is needed, and how many of us have cell phones at the games. When my nephew was signed we had no idea who really has watched him, until a guy apporached, after speaking with the coach.
Time to catch the last couple of innings of the DB game.

ON THE NOD

Are you sure old kh isn’t on the nod while at the keyboard. Seems he nodded out with his finger on the mouse .

G-town victorious

Glendora 3
DB 0

BJ

Damien beats Chino Hills 7-3!

DBfan

Where’re the Dbar hitters? I rest my case. A good hitting team can always score on the best pitcher they face. The better you pitch the better I hit. DBar only have couple of good hitters, the rest are free swingers. That’s my point, if you don’t see it, you are blind.

It’s all over!

Error’s error’s error’s will be Kenny’s down fall! That’ D.B’s down fall!

sparta

Guillen had 9-10 strike outs in 5 innings work. Sucks that he still ended up with a no decision.

patrick

Will you guys please shut up with all the Boo Hoo talk…I would personally pay Obama out of my own pocket to give a few of you a REAL job .Last time i checked, stalking and heckling 15-17 yr old kids is not a job!..its perversion as far as im concerned!

oh Goody

Thanks Don, for your condescending remarks. We completely appreciate you interpreting for kh. God bless you, and the www.

DamienScore

Sparta,

I agree Guillen did a great job today. He settled down and pitched great. I want to recognize Jr. 3B Chavez and Sr. 2B Lewis for coming up with bigtime glove plays to help out Jrs. Gonzales and Hedges on the mound. Great team work! Next week will be a big showdown DAMIEN vs GLENDORA, what a week. Fred you gonna cover both games?

socalbaseball fan

Looks like Glendora will be the new #1 team in the D2 polls this week as Crespi lost 4-1 to Alemany. REV with ace sr lhp Griffen Murphy beat Rialto 1-0 and may move up to #2. Yucaipa beat Redlands as sr rhp Taijuan Walker fanned 14 batters in a 2-1 game.
Diamond Bar should hope that Glendora takes both games vs Damien. They have no chance to finish first and 2nd is better than 3rd place to avoid the wildcard game and use up your ace in this game. Ayala beat Chino 15-7 for their first sierra league win. Brahmas need to take 2 from Ayala next week.

Poor Babby

After reading the quotes in today Sports section from Chino Hills HS coached about the Damien team and their win…. seems he was a little but hurt.

Hey Coach if you are a better and lost 2 of 3 then maybe you were OUT COACHED!

Poor babby

Time For A Championship Mentality

Poor Baby isn’t it the norm for Chino Hills to win 2 out of 3 from Damien? Maybe Damien should learn to win with class instead of pretending they have Championship pedigree. When was the last SL Baseball Championship? How about SL Basketball Championship? How did the Soccer team do this year? What was the score in this year’s Chino Hills vs Damien Football Game? Time for Damien to shut up and win. Glendora is next. Shut up and win. One game means nothing unless you can continue to get better and put it all together. New coach, new stadium, same old front running attitude? I don’t think so. Glendora will be a huge gut check for the Spartans. Win or lose the whole team, from freshmen to seniors, at all levels need to understand how important it is to create a name for Damien at all times and in every game. I hope the Tartans bring their best game and alleviate the Spartans to a level they are yet to realize. Time for a Championship mentality, why else would you the game?

radar guns

I keep hearing about all the pitching at Glendora. How hard to those guys throw? I hear they have 5 really good pitchers and was wondering what they might be on the radar guns.

Billingsley Crying

Hey Championship Mentality, Do you think that your coach coming out in the paper and saying the things he did is a championship mentality? You probably do if your from Chino Hills. You beat us the first game 7-6 and we committed 7 errors. We didn’t say squat about the loss. We took the loss without whinning, got to practice, got better and then came out and beat you in two consecutive games. I will not say that you are a lousy team because you’re not, but what I will say is that you have to play all 7 innings and you guys didn’t on Wednesday or Friday. The better team won! I don’t know what will happen next week vs Glendora, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the Spartans will come ready to play and win or lose, we will give our best. With our shield or on our shield is the way we play. So I will shut up now and enjoy both wins against Chino Hills HS.

Don

Hey Goody, like the plural we, just like the guru. Whats next, referring to your own bad self in the third person?

Thanks for the blessing too, nice sentiment. To your point, Im in no way interpreting for Huth, only providing a bit of background to clarify a comment regarding scouts for some who maybe didnt understand, like you. He doesnt need any more interpretation than anyone else here, if you cant figure his posts out, dont read em.

In case you havent figured it out,, Huth is OK with me and I like his kid. People like you with your superior attitude and gripes about other peoples spelling, grammar, and punctuation should concentrate more on content and quit overcompensating for those Ds you got in grade school English.

Don

On another, more important topic: Props to James Guillen and Adam Plutko for their wins Friday. Both top notch kids and Im happy to see them having such excellent seasons. Great job guys.

infoman

radar, Glendoras down to 4 pitchers with the loss of Gonzalez (sore arm-too much football, too little baseball in the offseason IMO) Plutko (UCLA) is anywhere from 87-94 with an avg probably of 89-92 most days. Next is Smigelski (LMU) at 87-91 with an avg of about 89. Then Winterburn (CSUSB)(mostly a catcher prior to this year) at 87-89 no offspeed pitch and finally Cage (APU) at 83-85. Hope that helps. If im wrong somebody correct me.

VVL Scout

Covina beat Charter Oak 4-3 at Charter Oak today.

reaching

94?

oh Goody

Don, Don, Don,

I’m glad you & Huth are good with each other. And for the record, I have no fricken idea who either of you two are!

All i know is those of us who are literate in the SVG will “attempt” to read anything put in front of us. Kh makes that a challenge!

socal baseball fan

Former brahma star jr Gary Brown had a huge night for CSF going 5-6 with 2 home runs,one triple,5 rbi’s in a win over UCSB 17-3. Brown is hitting near .450 for the season and should be a first team all american this year.

radar gun

infoman…….

if those numbers are correct, that is pretty impressive to have that many power arms at one school (Glendora). Do you know what kind of radar gun readings some of the better pitchers at other schools are throwing? Charter Oak, Bonita, Bishop Amat etc.??? I heard Mathews at Diamond Bar was about 86-87mph but I don’t know about all the other SGV pitchers.

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